For migrant and refugee women, the International Women’s Day (IWD) is very important.

Origin of International Women's Day

One of the events that led to celebrating the International Women’s Day happened in New York when migrant women workers in a garment factory initiated a demonstration demanding for equal pay, eight hours of work and the right to vote. On the 8th of March 2008, we will celebrate the International Women’s Day. It will be a day when women will come together to celebrate and be challenged and most of all to assert and affirm our commitment to promote rights of women. International Women’s Day grew out of a number of events.

In 1908 a woman’s day was held with hundreds attending a march for better pay and conditions. In the next year women 30,000 garment workers staged a general strike, and continued to do so for thirteen weeks for better pay and conditions.

In 1910 at the Second International Conference of socialist women in Copenhagen, Denmark it was agreed that women’s day become an international event and so international women’s day became an annual event. Over the years International Women’s Day has come to be celebrated in many different ways, from conferences to rallies to militant actions.

In 1974 Prime Minister Whitlam chose International Women’s Day as the time to announce that the government was preparing an official program called Women’s Decade. Many women’s groups have been involved in organizing International Women’s Day events including, women students, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the unions.

International Women’s Day has also taken up a number of causes: these include demands for equal pay, free childcare, free and safe contraceptives and demand for provision of safe legal abortion. This year’s International Women’s Day has three main demands:

(a) close the gap for indigenous women and children,
(b) real choices for women at home, school, work and the rest of the world and
(c) more services that support women.

On 14 February, the Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association (IWSA) held its first immigrant and refugee women’s gathering this year in Parramatta. The participants are women from grassroots organisations and service providers. The purpose of this gathering was to document current concerns and issues faced by immigrant and refugee women and to provide proposals for action and present them to the new government in particular at the Federal Government’s Office for Women Roundtable on immigrant and refugee women that will be held on 7th of April 2008.

The list of concerns and action proposals will be used as basis for lobbying for policy change and provision of appropriate services for immigrant and refugee women.

At the first part of the gathering Rosemary Kariuki (IWSA MC Representative) on behalf of the IWSA Management Committee, applauded the Rudd government’s apology to the stolen generation of aboriginal peoples and for all decades of hardships and difficulties endured because policies and programs of governments. IWSA presented to the participants the list of concerns and proposed actions that were lifted from the previous IWSA policy submissions. The participants affirmed that these concerns and action proposal are still relevant.

Later they presented other concerns and action proposals that were not on the list. The following are the issues and concerns discussed and all participants agreed to include on the list of proposals to be presented to the federal government:

1. Family Law: focus on divorce
2. Women at Risk: women with disability
3. Homelessness and the Rent Crisis: public housing
4. Employment. Young NESB women
5. Failure of the mainstream government services

The details of the above concerns and corresponding action proposals will be collated and combined with the IWSA list presented at the gathering. Participants and IWSA members will be provided with a copy of the list.

The Federal and State governments held a CEDAW Consultation as part of the government process in preparing the Australian report to the CEDAW Committee in August 2008. The Immigrant Women's Speakout Association (IWSA) participated at the joint NSW and Federal Governments' consultation on its CEDAW report on 6 February 2008 in Martin Place, Sydney. IWSA representatives were Lara Palombo (IWSA MC [Management Committe] Member), Muyesser Durur (IWSA MC Member), Vivi Germanos-Koutsounadis (IWSA Member and National Council for Women Adviser on immigrant women), Lina Cabaero (IWSA Management Committee Chairperson) and Jane Corpuz-Brock (IWSA Executive Officer). Below are some of the key issues and proposals for action that IWSA presented at the consultation:

Issue: Poverty facing migrant women
Issues:

l Poverty among newly-arrived immigrants (more than 80% of humanitarian visa holders are not in the labour force 4 to 6 months after arrival, and two-years waiting period for social security benefits)
l Poverty among working migrant women (low remuneration of work under sub-contractual arrangements; no paid maternity leave and costly childcare)
l Migrant women in domestic violence situation are also caught in the spiral of poverty especially immigrant and refugee women who have family and children
l Temporary Protection Visa Holders cannot access intensive employment assistance
l Situation of immigrant women as outworkers
l Non-recognition of education, skills and work experience acquired from overseas.

Proposal for action:
l Cancel the two-year waiting period for newly arrived migrants and instead replace it with job-seeking financial assistance scheme, making sure that migrant women will be extensively reached by the program.
l Monitoring and assessment of industries and businesses that employ outworkers. Strict compliance to best practice in workplace should be implemented.
l An urgent review of the procedures for recognition of overseas qualifications and fairer and more accessible schemes for upgrade of qualifications where this is necessary.
l Program for job search that will include a three-month relevant work experience for new migrants (skilled/independent) starting one week after arrival and paid the equivalent of Newstart Allowance until such time as alternative permanent employment is found (ie program to match these migrants to work experience in which they stay for a reasonable period or until they find a better job).
l To support effective job search of migrant and refugee women, there should be additional funding item on child-care in all programs assisting immigrant and refugee to find employment.
l Repeal the temporary protection visa and comply with the United Nations Convention on Refugees.
lA deepening of measures of income-support and poverty alleviation to take account of differential cost regimes and obligations which impact on disposable income etc.
l Medicare bulk-billing.
l Increase funding for more training of mainstream services dealing with NESB women experiencing domestic violence.
l Comprehensive information given to women, in their own language, on arrival to Australia regarding their rights and will include IWSA’s contact details.

Rural CALD women ISSUE:
High unemployment and lack of job opportunities in the rural regions compared to the city areas
Issues: |

l Language difficulties
l Lack of knowledge and skills in equal employment opportunity, recruitment and training
l The gaps in the Australian system in recognizing overseas skills and qualifications of rural CALD women
l Lack of support for small business initiatives or innovations for income support
l Discrimination by employers
lTransport is a real big issue for finding employment opportunities

Proposal for action:
l To better utilize the use of TAFE for CALD women who have skills in providing employment and education mentorship programs. (TAFE’s personalized approach in employment advice, according to individualized needs worked quite well).
l Develop a proactive model in supporting rural CALD women get employment and more positive outlook in their job search especially due to limited rural opportunities.
l Train rural CALD women in starting their own business.
l Support those undertaking job search by providing transportation.

These are only a few of the many concerns and proposal for action that IWSA presented at the CEDAW consultation.

The Family Violence Provisions (FVP) in Immigration Law

This one day training is suitable for community workers working with migrant women experiencing domestic violence by a sponsoring partner (an Australian citizen or permanent resident). The training will outline the FVP, how it operates and its impact on migrant women, eligibility criteria, proof of violence, support services, and how community workers can assist.

Date:Thursday 17th April 9.30 am – 4.30 pm
Venue: Training Room, Ground Floor, CFMEU, 12 Railway St, Lidcombe, NSW
Cost: $55 (inc GST)
Contact: Emina on 9635 8022 or women@speakout.org.au

The training is open to all community workers who are/will/should be working with migrant and refugee women. A basic understanding of domestic violence is necessary for attendance in this training. Early registration with payment two weeks prior to the training date is essential.

IWSA Women's Chat Room

Practice your computer skills!

Use our fast internet for free!

Meet and chat with other Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) women over a cup of tea!

Monday to Friday 10 am to 1pm at Speakout Office

Contact Emina on 9635 8022 for more informations.